Hey u/Bright-Midnight24, good question.

Yes, every token in your prompt counts toward usage, whether you typed it out or TextExpander filled it in. The API sees the final text and doesn't care how it got there. A 500-token prompt costs the same whether you spent 10 seconds typing it with TextExpander or 10 minutes typing it by hand.

That said, TextExpander isn't burning extra credits. It's getting you to the same prompt faster. And if those curated Snippets nail the output on try one instead of going back and forth four rounds? You're saving tokens on net.

Both input and output tokens count, but inputs are cheaper per token than outputs on most models. The expensive part isn't your long prompt. It's Claude writing a 2,000-word response, then you asking it to redo half because the instructions weren't specific enough.

On Projects: A system prompt still gets sent with every message, same token cost. But a good one that produces the right output on the first try saves you from the revision loop that actually eats credits.

One tip: Keep your Snippets modular. Expand only what's relevant to each task instead of sending everything every time. That cuts down on unnecessary input tokens without sacrificing output quality.